Improved car-brake



W. S. SHOTWELL.

Can" Brake. No. 69,262. Patented Sept. 24. 1867.

Inventor,

W Ma i M Witnesses:

AM. PHOTO-LITHQCONX. (OSBORNE'S PROCESS.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER S. SHOTVELL, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVED CAR-BRAKE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 69,262, dated September24, 1867.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, WALTER S. SHOTWELL, of Paterson, in the county ofPassaic and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and ImprovedRailroad-Oar Brake; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable othersskilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to a new and improved railroad-car brake of thatclass which are op erated or applied by the momentum of the cars afterthe engineer cuts off the steam.

The object of the invention is to obtain a car-brake of the classspecified which will be simplein construction, capable of bein g adaptedor applied to the ordinary hand-brakes now in use, and still admit ofthe brakes of each car being applied by hand whenever it is necessary todetach a car from a train and switch it off from the main track.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a side sectional viewof the runnin g-gear of a car having my invention ap plied to it; Fig.2, an inverted plan of the same; Fig. 3, afront view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

A represents the lower part or bed of a railroad-car, and B B the trucksthereof. These parts, being of usual construction, do not require aspecial description. G represent brake bars, suspended by springs orelastic bars D, as usual.

The brake-bars of each truck have rods E E attached centrally tothem,the inner ends ofsaid rods being connected to levers F, thefulcrumpins of which pass through eyes a, secured to the centralcrossbars b of the trucks, as shown in Fig. 1. The rods E E of thebrake-bars are attached to the levers F at opposite sides of theirfulcrum-pins, and the upper ends of the levers F pass through loops orguides G, secured to the bed A of the car.

In the upper part of each lever F, below the guides G, there are fittedrods H, in such a manner that the rods may slide in the levers, and oneach rod H a spiral spring, 0, is fitted. (See more particularly Fig.1.) These rods H rest upon arms (I, placed on shafts c, which have theirbearings f attached to the bed A; and these shafts 0 also have anotherarm, 9, attached, said arms 9 being connected by rods h to cranks i, atthe lower ends of vertical shafts I, at the ends of the bed A.

The upper ends of the shafts I have each an arm, j, attached, providedwith a socket, and through these sockets elastic cords J pass, saidcords having knots k in them within the sockets, to prevent the cordsfrom slipping in the latter, and admit of the shafts I being turned ineither direction by the pulling of the cords J. This will be fullyunderstood by referring to Fig. 1.

By turning the shafts l the shafts 6 will be also turned, and the armscl thereon made to raise the rods H or allow them to drop by their owngravity, said rods when raised being in line with shoulders I on thedraw-heads K of the car-bed A, as shown in black in Fig. 1. When therods H are thus raised the brakes will be applied by the momentum of thecars whenever the engineer cuts off the steam, as the draw-heads K, inthat case, will be forced inward or in a direction toward the center ofthe bed A, and the shoulders ion the drawheads will act against the rodsH, and the latter, in turn, actuate the levers F, which apply thebrakes, as will be fully understood by referring to Fig. 1.

The springs c prevent the levers F being subjected to any undue jars orconcussions. When the rods H are lowered so that their outer ends willbe below the shoulders l of the draw-heads, the brakes will beinoperative, so far as momentum as a power is concerned. This loweringof the rods His necessary in order to admit of a train being backed whennecessary.

L L represent two sliding bars fitted to the under side of the car-bedA, and having their inner ends pivoted to a lever, M, at opposite sidesof the fulcrum m thereof, as shown in Fig. 2, said lever being attachedto the under side of the car-bed A. The outer ends of these bars L L areformed with loops at, through which the upper ends of the levers F pass.The outer ends of the lever M are connected by chains 0 and rods 19 towindlasses N on the ends of the car bed. By this arrangement it will beseen that the brakes of any individual car may be applied by hand at anytime when necessaryas, for instance, in switching one or more cars offfrom a train upon a branch track.

The elastic cords J, I design to have attached to the bell-rope O, whichpasses through all the cars of a train, so that the engineer, whennecessary, may operate simultaneously the rods H of all the cars of thetrain. The cords J should be attachedto the bell-rope O by a snap orfastening, P, so constructed as to admit of the ready attachment of thecords to the bell-rope.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patant- 1. The combination and arrangement of the rods E E,levers F, spring-rods H, arms d and g, rods h, cranks z, shaft 1, arm j,and cords J, substantially as described, for the purpose specified.

2. The rods H, in combination with the cords J connected with thebell-rope 0, the shafts I, shafts 6, having arms (I attached, on whichthe rods H rest, all arranged substantially as shown and described.

3. Inv combination with the brake herein described, I claim the bars Land lever M, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

WALTER S. SHOTWELL,

\Vitnesses BENJAMIN D. DoREMUs, CHARLES KEELER.

